Robotics team recognized for spirit

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, April 4, 2005

The 30-student team, which spent six intense weeks building its robot entry, Leo, did not win any prizes for his performance March 10 to 12 at the Meadows, but their appearance and enthusiasm earned them the Daimler Chrysler Team Spirit Award.

"It was great. We weren't expecting anything at all, and there were so many schools there competing. We just had no idea that it was coming," team member Larry Baker said of the trophy Team 1099 received the final night of the 2005 FIRST regional competition.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a nonprofit organization founded in 1989, seeks to make science and math not only accessible for students around the world but fun and exciting.

For FIRST's annual robotics competitions, teams of high school students and/or professional engineers design and assemble a robot capable of performing specific tasks. This year it was to pick up and stack 3-foot plastic tetrahedron shapes.

Students in Team 1099 handled the design and assembly of their robot with advisers Rob Zapor, Brookfield High tech teacher; Susan Troupe, career coordinator; and Donna Didsbury, a math teacher.

Student "drive teams" operate the robots' controls; the robots compete in teams of three against three in various cooperative/competitive alliances.

In the "spirit" aspect of the competitions, the teams adopt themes, produce brochures and buttons, and wear costumes. Some even sing.

In this, Team 1099's third year, as in the past, not all members are from Brookfield High - eight veteran members come from Weston High School with their tech teacher Craig Firmender, while others come from Pomperaug and New Milford high schools.

The competition season began Jan. 8 with a Web-broadcast kickoff celebration at which teams were given new specifications and technical guidance - and 150 pounds of hardware and some software - to build their robot. By Feb. 18, it had to be completed and crated for shipping.

Zapor, the team's technical director, said the building phase takes an incredible amount of time and requires a great deal of dedication.

"In the weeks leading up to the competition we met almost every night of the week. These kids spent close to 3,000 hours working on this," Zapor said.

Beside weeknight sessions, the team met weekends and even on snow days, said Troupe, who handles organization and fund-raising for the team. (It costs $6,000 to enter a competition plus lodging, transportation and meals for the group.)

Team 1099 chose a Renaissance theme this year. Students designed bright yellow T-shirts, and with help from parent volunteers Kate Luce and Jackie Kettunen sewed vests and shirts for the boys and elaborate medieval gowns for the girls.

Jen Dupree, the team mascot, with her mother's help, made herself a Leo the Lion costume with fur and silver armor. Ben Luce painted a scene on a giant tool box. Larry Baker wrote a Code of Honor.

"Mrs. Troupe had given me a book on medieval knights awhile ago and I found a Code of Honor in there that I just adapted for our team," Baker explained.

Its tenets included: "We will act in an honorable way," "Show devotion to the team," "Never be satisfied with what has been done, but always seek to do more" and "Not take advantage of others' weaknesses."

During the Hartford competition, which drew 34 teams from New England and one from Canada, Team 1099 had a number of technical problems. Robots bump into one another or even pin one another to keep their competitors from performing the designated task, Zapor said, and it was during one of these moments that they lost Leo's arm.

"We realized very quickly what the problem was, but didn't really have time to fix it until after lunch," Zapor added.

The students - accompanied by parents, siblings, teachers and even school administrators - did not let technical setbacks dampen their enthusiasm. Even as their score lagged, they cheered on their drive team and other schools, Troupe said. "They were just great the whole weekend."

Baker gave mascot Dupree credit for keeping the team's spirits high.

Their positive attitude, Troupe said, and the code of honor impressed the judges. A few days after the competition, she received a letter from one of them, James G. Boyle, an associate director of research at Yale University.

"I'd like to complement your team for sharing its Code of Honor with us," he wrote. "When I read the tenets of the code aloud to the other judges, we were all simply awestruck."

While some judges will remember the winning teams for certain technical achievements, Boyle continued, "every judge will remember Team 1099 for their Code of Honor and costumes."

The team will take Leo to another competition May 21 at Northeastern University in Boston and is seeking donations for its expenses. Call Susan Troupe at (203) 775-5385.